I'm Bored

A student becoming bored in the classroom is deadly. It only takes one student to decide she/he is bored to derail a class. In some cases (and this is the topic today) a student "decides" to become bored in the classroom for one reason or another (and it's the teacher's job to figure that out). Being bored leads to classroom disruption. Bored students seldom put their heads down on their desks and allow the lesson, stimulating or not to move forward. There is much more to it. When being bored is a decision on the part of the student, something is going on with that student.

The "bored" student generally announces the state of boredom with considerable confidence and it's never done politely . There is no hesitation and the rest of the students can be easily drawn in. Teachers need to jump right on that situation without demonstrating disgust over it. The student does not to be addressed immediately during class, but as soon as possible after that. So, what do you do in the meantime? There is no generic answer, but under the best circumstances the teacher is proactive and has planned ahead for that student. I used the "stapling" method. I left all of my stapling of papers for that "bored" kid. A whole year went by and I never stapled any papers. I'm not all that smart, it was just dumb luck. A kid made the announcement, I kept on giving instructions to the class, grabbed a stack of papers and a stapler and plopped them on his desk. Between sentences I leaned down and quickly whispered, "Staple these together for me, thanks." Then I went on with what I was saying.

Over time, lots of papers got stapled that year, whether they needed it or not. The important point was that the bored student got something he needed, attention, a sense of worth, something to do with excess nervous energy, whatever it was. In the end, no harm, no foul, and I didn't need to spend a lot of energy over it.

As usual, your comments and stories are welcomed.

Stef